Curriculum

Veterinary Public Health Core Courses

In addition to core courses and electives,
students must complete a Practicum or field experience as well as a Culminating
Project to fulfill the requirements of the MPH-VPH program. Through these
experiences, the students utilize classroom knowledge for practical and real
life applications.

Practicums

Managing Brucellosis in Bison, Montana, USA

A
practicum is a graduate-level internship where students apply classroom
knowledge to career objectives in a professional setting. Students typically begin a practicum by shadowing
a VPH professional carrying out their regular duties in any of the five areas
of veterinary public health. Some of the
common areas in which students complete their VPH practicum include zoonotic
diseases, food safety, preparedness and emergency response, environmental
health, epidemiology, biomedical research and veterinary regulatory
medicine. Often during this 3-week
minimum field experience, students take on projects and job duties requisite of
professionals in their chosen field.
Examples include:

Conducting
research in regulatory veterinary medicine and presenting findings at a
conference

Processing
lab specimens to aid county level health departments in identifying and
measuring the prevalence of vectorborne diseases such as West Nile Virus in
their jurisdiction

Students
gain real world experience that provides them a competitive edge when they
prepare to enter the workforce.
Furthermore, many students find that their practicums turn into job
offers. Our graduate students have
completed practicums at the local, state, federal, and international
level. Please see the listings below for
recent examples of positions filled for internships and field experiences.

Culminating Projects

A Culminating Project is developed and
executed by the student in conjunction with a faculty advisor and committee to
partially fulfill requirements of the MPH-VPH degree. All Culminating Projects require a written
manuscript showing proof of mastery of the curriculum by applying knowledge
gained through coursework and the practicum.
Students can choose one of two options when pursuing a Culminating
Project:

Generate
new knowledge or science through research (Thesis Option)

or

Identify
a veterinary public health issue or problem and provide a solution (Non-thesis Option)

Thesis Option

Expectations
for students completing a thesis include identifying a research problem, developing
objectives and hypothesis, designing an experiment, running the experiment(s)
in the field or the laboratory, organizing and analyzing data, and writing a
manuscript (thesis) of publishable quality.

Non-thesis Option

Students pursuing the non-thesis pathway
have multiple options in which the service project can take form. Common
projects include, but not limited to, developing risk communication materials
or emergency plans, creating educational materials to train public health
professionals, conducting applied research and analysis with government and
private industry data, or conducting comprehensive literature reviews that fill
gaps in knowledge.

Culminating Projects usually require a
year to complete and can take the form of field research, laboratory research,
service projects, and comprehensive reviews.
These student projects add to the knowledge base of Veterinary Public
Health science and contribute to solving current human and animal health
issues. Please refer to the table below
for examples of previously completed projects.

Culminating
Projects

Title

Type

‘‘A
Retrospective Study of Leptospirosis in Ohio Animals between 2002 and 2005’’

Applied Field Research

“The Public Health Implications of Emergency
and Disaster Planning at Ohio Animal Shelters”

Applied Field Research

“Prevention of Zoonotic Diseases on Dairy
Farms: Assessing a Comprehensive Educational Program for Dairy Personnel”

Applied Field Research

‘‘Service Dogs
and Biological Event Response to an Anthrax Attack’’

Service

“Development of
Educational Materials to Improve Management and Reduce the Burden of Pet
Allergies”

“Environmental Factors that May Contribute
to the Transmission of Avian Influenza: A Study at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo”

Research

‘‘Environmental
Salmonella Surveillance in the Ohio
State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital’’

Research

“Optimization
and Validation of a Duplex PCR Technique for the Identification of
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus
aureus from Canine Samples”

Research

Careers
Filled

Norovirus detection in Ohio, USA

Graduates
from Ohio State University’s MPH-VPH program secure professional careers with public
and private entities at the local, state, federal and international level. The following list features government
departments, military and other organizations that have employed our graduates
as program managers, project coordinators, data analysts, epidemiologists,
public health specialists, food inspectors, outbreak investigators, and many
more.

Local and State Departments of Health

Ohio Department of Health

Madison County and Perry County Health
Departments

U.S. and State Departments of Agriculture

USDA-APHIS

USDA-FSIS

Ohio Department of Agriculture

Local and National Diagnostic Laboratories

Ohio Animal Disease Diagnostic
Laboratory

Ohio Consumer Protection Laboratory

Plum Island Animal Disease Center

Federal Agencies

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Epidemic Intelligence Service
(EIS)